Monday, August 1, 2011

Google’s Inside Search blog recently shared a couple of handy tricks that you can apply when searching for information on Google. The blog demonstrated how we can quickly find books by cover using the Image Search color filter tool.

Google’s Image Search, as you might be aware, has a color filter tool that lets you narrow down your results by showing images of a particular color. For example, if you choose Green, Google will show only those images whose predominant color is green or shades of green.

By using this tool, you will find that it’s easier to find a book by its color rather than its exact title. Suppose you want to find a book by Roald Dahl. You don't remember the title, just that it had a red cover. Try searching for [roald dahl books] in Google Images. Adding the word "book" to the query will limit the searches to images related largely to books.

Then, using the color filter tool in the left-hand panel, you can select the red filter and find only books by Roald Dahl that have a red color. See? It’s so much easier to find now.

Of course, you can use Image Search in plenty of other ways using the various filters on the left-hand panel such as types (faces, photos and line drawing), size, date and sort by subject. Google Image Search also supports search by image, where you load an image from your computer or a URL from the web and Google shows you matching results. You can use this feature to identify pictures of unknown locations and monuments.